


Bree

by tokillaladybug



Series: AU Yeah August 2018 [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Single Parent, Gen, Single Parent Chloe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 07:07:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15552339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokillaladybug/pseuds/tokillaladybug
Summary: Who could be here after midnight on a Tuesday night?“Chloe?  What are you doing here?”Chloe Bourgeois stood in front of him, holding her 2 month old Bree asleep in her carrier.  A large bag stuffed full is slung over one shoulder and her hair is in a frazzled half bun, barely pinned out of her face.  She huffed and reached for as much of a hug as she can manage, “Adrikins, don’t be ridiculous."AU Yeah August 2018 Day 3: Single Parent.





	Bree

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 of AU Yeah August: Single Parent

Bang! Bang! Bang! 

The harsh knocks on the door rattled the whole wall, waking Adrien up from where he’d dozed off on the living room couch. Who could be here after midnight on a Tuesday night? Shaking himself from his daze, Adrien made his way to the front door just as another series of harsh knocks rattled his apartment. He opened his door a fraction and peered out.

“Chloe? What are you doing here?” He swung his door wide open and took a better look. 

Chloe Bourgeois stood in front of him, holding her 2-month old Bree asleep in her carrier. A large bag stuffed full is slung over one shoulder and her hair is in a frazzled half bun, barely pinned out of her face. She huffed and reached for as much of a hug as she can manage, “Adrikins, don’t be ridiculous. I knew you needed my presence so I came as soon as I could. It took me so long to get Bree to sleep, so if we could move this inside…?”

“Of course Chloe. Come on in.” Adrien took in her dark circles and flushed cheeks and nose. She’d done a good job cleaning up but he knew better – she’d been crying. “So how did you know I needed you here, Chlo? I just thought I’d see you at our lunch on Thursday.” He took the bag from her shoulder and barely suppressed a groan as he carried it across the room and set it down near the couch. How was she carrying that thing? It must have weighed half as much as she did. 

“We’ve been friends forever, Addi. I just know these things.” She settled into his couch with Bree’s carrier in front of her on the coffee table. She avoided his eyes as she took her hair down and started smoothing and combing it with her fingers. 

Adrien decided now would be a good time to make coffee. He let Chloe think for a while in the silence. Only speaking briefly to bring her a glass of cool water. He watched her from behind the counter, fixing her hair, smoothing her clothing, and gently swaying Bree’s rocker when she whined in her sleep. It was all while she kept a blank stare across the room with her eyes glazed over. Her breathing stayed steady, so he let her take her time to gather together whatever storm of thoughts was rolling around in her head. 

The drip, drip, drip of the percolating coffee was an interesting metronome for his own thoughts as he woke from his sleep-addled state. 

Eventually, the coffee finished and he poured two cups, fixing his own with 2 heaping spoonfuls of sugar and making sure to get Chloe’s just right – “French Vanilla Creamer to the color of Mac NW40. Not a shade otherwise.” He padded over to the couch and set her cup in front of her next to Bree. Settling into the other corner of the couch, he warmed his hands on the mug and took a deep breath in of the smell. 

“Coffee is for drinking Adrikins, not huffing. Even you know that,” she smiled, but her eyes never left the wall in front of her. 

“Don’t let yours get cold while you judge my habits, Chloe, it would only be a waste of both time and perfectly good coffee. Truly a trage-tea.” He watched her face grimace at the pun, but it got her focus off the wall and onto him, so that’s a success. 

Chloe tried to hide her smile behind tired eyes and a manner of indifference, but it peeked through anyway. “Those puns never did become you. You really should break the habit one of these days.” Her eyes rested on the sleeping Bree. She took a small sip of her coffee and held the mug tightly in her hands near her face as she spoke. “We wouldn’t want you teaching the next generation, would we?” 

“Chloe, why are you here?”

Her hands tightened on her mug. “I told you Addi, I knew you needed my presence. I just had to come and make sure you were okay.”

“Chlo.”

“Really, I have no idea what else you could be referring to. I told you-”

“Chloe.” His voice held a note of finality, but he never shifted from his relaxed spot on the couch. “What’s wrong?”

She looked at him for a long moment before letting out a slow, shuddering breath. She set the coffee cup down and put her head in her hands. After a few moments, she mumbled something Adrien couldn’t hear.

“What was that?” He sat forward and scooched closer to her on the couch. 

“I can’t do it!” The words burst from her with a loud, puffing breath. “This – being a parent. I can’t. I don’t know what I was thinking.” Her words weren’t a shout, but in the quiet night, they may as well have been. Bree woke up to her words and started crying, curling her fists tight around the corners of her blanket. The wailing pierced the night more than Chloe’s words. “Fuck. Shit, shit, shit, fuck. Okay, okay,” she leaned over and picked Bree up, rocking her in her arms slowly. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m sorry, please don’t cry. Don’t cry.” She attempted to be soothing, but her voice had a panicked edge to it. 

Adrien took Bree from her arms and continued the rocking, cooing quietly at her until she settled down again. Chloe slumped down onto the couch and fiddled with the handle of the coffee cup. After about 10 minutes, Bree was sound asleep again in the carrier. 

“Chloe, what’s going on? You were so excited to have her.”

“What if it was all a big mistake? What if I mess her up the way I’m messed up? I can’t do that to her.” 

“And that’s exactly why you’ll be a great mother, Chloe. You’re really going to be careful to be the best mother you can be. You don’t want to be your parents – material love at best and absentee at worst. You’ll make sure to be there for her.” 

“But what if-”

“Chloe. You chose her. She wasn’t an accident. She wasn’t even planned with anyone else. She’s your daughter and yours only. You can’t drag her through a messy divorce because there won’t be one. You can’t abandon her to live with her dad because she doesn’t have one. And she won’t be scarred by a parent leaving because you’ll always be there. This is why you chose IVF; you spent years deciding on this. You were so excited during your whole pregnancy.” Chloe hadn’t looked at him the whole time he talked, instead, keeping her eyes lowered and her body curled over itself. Finally, he asked, “Why are you worried about this now?” 

“She’s too perfect, Addi. I can’t mess this up. I can’t ruin her. Everything I touch, I mess up. I can’t-”

“Chloe Bourgeois, listen to me. You do not ruin everything you touch. You’ve spent over a decade trying to unlearn everything your parents taught you, and I see you fighting yourself all the time to be better. You will not ruin Bree. She will grow up with a loving mother, who is caring and thoughtful and is always trying to learn, grow, and be a better person. No child could ask for a better example of a parent.”

Chloe leaned into him and pressed her face into his shoulder. Adrien brought his arms around her and held her as she shook silently, the fabric on his shoulder slowly growing damp. After a few minutes, she peeled herself away from him and reached into the overstuffed bag beside her, pulling out a handful of tissues. “Thank you,” she said with a raspy voice. 

They sat on the couch, huddled together, for a long while. Bree slept the night away as the two of them enjoyed the comfortable silence. Eventually, the early morning light just started to peak through the curtains. Chloe shifted out from under Adrien’s arm, stood, and stretched, waking him from his doze for the second time that night. She looked at her still sleeping Bree, somehow having slept a few hours solidly through. Maybe she knew how important this was to Chloe. Or maybe Adrien’s presence soothed the both of them. 

Adrien asked, “Morning already?” He also stretched in his spot on the couch, yawning widely. 

“I should get home and feed her. She’ll probably wake up on her own any minute now anyway, and she’ll be hungry.”

“You know you can always come here Chloe, whenever you need.”

Chloe turned to him with shining eyes, “I know, Adrikins. Thank you.” She hugged him tightly one more time before packing up her bag and shuffling herself and Bree towards the front door. As they stood in the doorway she added, “I’ll make sure she always knows how special her Uncle Adrien is to me. And I’ll make sure she knows how much she’s loved.” Chloe turned to head down the hallway. 

Adrien called towards her, “She better be over here so often that I’ll be her favorite uncle. Babysitting her will be a Bree-ze.” Adrien grinned widely at himself. 

Chloe laughed. She glanced over her shoulder just to make sure Adrien knew she was smiling. “Only if you break that nasty habit. My daughter won’t ever be allowed to make such awful attempts at humor.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! This turned into a monster that took over 6 hours. Comments are very much appreciated as always :)


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